Mumbai, Feb 12 (IANS) The trio of wicketkeeper-batter Yastika Bhatia, fast-bowling all-rounder Pooja Vastrakar and off-spin all-rounder Humairaa Kaazi have joined the Mumbai Indians camp ahead of 2024 season of the Women’s Premier League (WPL).

The trio took to the nets for their first practice session, after a conversation with the coaching team, to structure their pre-season schedule ahead of the tournament starting on January 23 in Bengaluru.

The team started off with agility drills, strength work-outs and fielding drills. The session continued into the night with batting and bowling in the nets under the watchful eyes of the coaches.

"The players got a choice today at the session with range hitting and any specific shot they want to work on. Some players also repeated what they worked on in the previous session. Some of them play a finisher’s role like Pooja, Amanjot, Sajana and Kaazi, so we focused on range hitting," said batting coach Devieka Palshikaar.

Looking at the season ahead, where Mumbai go into the competition as defending champions, Devieka said, "My aim is to support players right now in whatever way possible. I look after some technical, but also tactical aspects, since they know their specific roles now."

WPL 2024 will be happening from February 23 to March 17 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru and at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi, respectively.

The first 11 matches of WPL 2024 will be held in Bengaluru, with the remaining nine league matches and the two Playoff matches taking place in New Delhi.

Mumbai Indians will open their campaign against Delhi Capitals on February 23, in what will be a re-match of the WPL 2023 final, where Harmanpreet Kaur-captained side defeated the Meg Lanning-led team by seven wickets at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.

Each team will play the other four teams twice. The table-topper of the five-team league stage will enter the final directly. Teams finishing second and third on the points table will face-off in the eliminator to decide who meets the table-topper in the title clash.

Mumbai Indians squad: Amanjot Kaur, Amelia Kerr, Chloe Tryon, Harmanpreet Kaur, Hayley Matthews, Humairaa Kaazi, Issy Wong, Jintimani Kalita, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Pooja Vastrakar, Priyanka Bala, Saika Ishaque, Yastika Bhatia, Shabnim Ismail, Sajeevan Sajana, Amandeep Kaur, Fatima Jaffer, and Keerthana Balakrishnan